KYA DILIP KUMAR KO BHULANNA ASAAN HAI ?.... By Ali Peter John

It was eight in the morning and I was struggling to get out of my bed because in the lockdown days , every day was like any other day and one had to either work from home or just stay home , when suddenly my caretaker hesitated to come into my room , and then came crying and howling and told me " aap ka Dilip Kumar chale gaye " I knew it was coming , but I could still not take it and I howled and cried for hours without saying a word and without eating or drinking a glass of water - Ali Peter John

This impact gradually kept growing lesser with time and I wondered and worried about whether I was also joining the ranks of people who make a big noise and mourn for a few days and then forget all about the man or woman for whom they had written RIP , Naman, Shraddhanjali and other sorrowful words which have gradually started losing all meaning , especially in these days when dying is just like living . .....

It was the 99th birthday of the thespian on December 11 and even Saira Banu who had not come out of her mourning and had stayed at home since July 7 came out , for the first time in a white saari which I think the one time beauty queen will now have to wear as long as she lives and drove to Subhash Ghai's "/Whistling Woods International to take part in a ceremony to mark the birth anniversary of her legendary husband and she was quite normal , she even smiled where she was needed to smile and spoke to the people around , especially her age - old friend Dharmendra who has been comforting her all these months and of course Subhash Ghai and his daughter Meghna Ghai Puri who had made it a point to see that Saira came out of her mourning and her gloomy circumstances at 34 Pali Hill from where her husband left on that fateful day when death once again proved that however powerful and popular and loved man is , it would always have the last say .

And as I saw the photographs of the ceremony , I wondered whether Dilip Kumar would be remembered for long or be just a name to be referred to whenever the living had the need to . I was already seeing people forgetting him and I too am guilty because I have not remembered him as much as I should have ....

But what satisfies my soul is that however hard we may try to forget Dilip Kumar , he and his massive. body of excellent work will have to be remembered , respected and revered as long as great work and great talent are an essential part of life.

How can we forget Dilip Kumar who was not just one man , but many men in one man , a gift God gives to a human being just once in probably a thousand years ?

How can we forget Dilip Kumar who was called " the God of acting" and the reference point when it came to the ultimate in acting , an actor who set the standards for actors of generations now and generations of the future and all time ?

How can we forget Dilip Kumar who was according to him. " the poorest actor who worked in just about 84 films and had never heard of what it meant for an actor to charge even a crore of rupees and who was satisfied with the few lakhs he asked to be paid and was sometimes even happy with receiving his remuneration in installments of a few lakhs each time he desperately needed some money " ghar baar chalaane ke liye ? "

How can we forget Dilip Kumar who was fluent in several languages , not only languages in India , but from different parts of the world ?

How can we forget Dilip Kumar who was not only a lover of good poetry , but also wrote and especially excelled in reciting the poetry of great poets which he knew literally by his heart ?

How can we forget Dilip Kumar who could keep audiences of any kind mesmerised by the way he spoke with utmost authority because he had a thorough grasp of the subjects he spoke about ? Can anyone imagine any of the actors , stars , superstars and mega star talking to experts and professionals on subjects like astronomy , astrology , bio - economics , political science , history and even religions of every region and how could he even pacify religious heads and religious fanatics?

How can we forget Dilip Kumar who was the first to rise to any occasion and any tragedy like storms , wars and any kind of malfunctioning of systems , values and ideas ? Wasn't he the man who criticised fashions , fads and values which were borrowed and he once told a gathering of intellectuals and told them that they were becoming slaves of ideas which were followed in the west and he emphatically said, "Values and ideas cannot be imported or borrowed .

Wasn't he the man who could tell Pakistani poets and intellectuals that they were living in fools paradise as long as they didn't follow their own thinking and the thinking of the common man in the countries they were living in?

How can we forget Dilip Kumar who was a sportsman who could play games like football , cricket , squash , tennis and chess with effortless ease and excel in them ?

How can we forget Dilip Kumar who was a lover who could show his love in everything he did in any area or feed of life ?

How can we forget Dilip Kumar who could lash out at politicians in public or even in Parliament when he was a member of the Rajya Sabha and was the Sheriff of Mumbai ?

How can we forget Dilip Kumar who could be comfortable and in command in the company of the mighty, the powerful and even the most common man ?

He may have gone away from this world and his remains must be lying in that grave in the Juhu Kabristan , but he lives in all the hearts he touched and changed and now lives in .

No , the world and it's people may try to do everything possible to forget him , but how can they forget all that treasure which he had left behind .

DUNIYA AUR ZAMAANA LAAKH KOSHISH KARE , LEKIN DILIP KUMAR KI HASTI MARTI NAHI , JUKHTI NAHI AUR MITT THI NAHI KYONKI DILIP KUMAR KI HASTI KOI KHUDAH YA KOI AAM AADMI SE KAM NAHI